Charlotte Has Made No Decision on Whether to Pursue 700 MHz STA

Last week the FCC Public Safety Bureau approved an STA request by Harris County, the first to be approved under the commission’s revised rules (CD Sept 4 p1). The STA allows the buildout of a network ahead of the national FirstNet. Charlotte declined to ask the FCC for a 180-day STA for its public-safety broadband network until it can put together a sustainable business plan, Charlotte Shared Services Director Chuck Robinson told us Tuesday. The waiver under which Charlotte had been operating expired Sunday.

"We're hanging on to the bare bones we can hang on to -- and all that costs money,” Robinson said. “We're paying bills every month.” The expected cost of the network has increased $2 million since the May 11 suspension of federal support under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), Robinson said (CD Aug 7 p1). The federal government isn’t offsetting the “cost increase associated with that suspension,” said Robinson, who added that 80 percent of the project’s initial costs were to be paid for by BTOP. Robinson said the city now faces higher costs for tower buildout and for storing equipment bought but not yet deployed and the rising cost of contract and leasing arrangements. Some elements of the suspension have caused money to disappear “out the door,” he said.

Charlotte also is troubled by the change in the FCC’s rules, allowing for only 180-day STAs, Robinson added. “There’s no scenario that makes the numbers work on a 180-day basis,” he said. He told us a business plan wouldn’t be feasible on so brief an authorization. Robinson said Charlotte officials are still trying to meet with device vendors and others to figure out how to make the network financially feasible. Charlotte sent the chair of the FirstNet board a letter in late August “so we might get together and work that out,” Robinson said of the shortness of the STAs. He told us he’s yet to receive a response.

People were once excited about Charlotte’s network because it was supposed to have been active by the Democratic National Convention now happening there, Robinson said. Initial plans forecast a launch in June, he said. “We think we offer a great opportunity for FirstNet,” he reiterated, and called the possibility of not going forward as a compatible FirstNet test bed “a great loss.”

BayRICS said in its application the STA is important “in order to avoid further loss of momentum, loss of funding commitments and potentially wasting the substantial investment made in the ... project to date.” Members of BayRICS include the city and county of San Francisco, the cities of Oakland and San Jose and Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties. The Aug. 20 filing (http://xrl.us/bnodrf), while available from the FCC, was largely missed because it was available only through the Universal Licensing System.

"BayRICS satisfies all of the Commission’s requirements for an STA,” the group said. “The ... project has a documented two-year history of sustained investment of time and resources. Its initial build-out of 128 LTE sites will be completed quickly, once NTIA releases the temporary, partial suspension of grant funding for LTE equipment. The project is endorsed by the State of California, and it is vital to the region: it will address a significant public safety need for broadband services across the Bay Area, well before FirstNet can arrive upon the scene. And the project will satisfy the Interoperability Board’s recommended minimum technical requirements, and will therefore advance, not undermine, Congress’s vision for a nationwide, interoperable public safety network.” An FCC official said Adams County, Colo., also sought a STA.